The State Highway Patrol says final data confirm the number of traffic deaths in 2011 is the smallest annual total on record for Ohio.

The patrol says there were 1,015 traffic fatalities last year. That’s down from 1,080 traffic deaths in 2010 and 1,022 in 2009, the lowest total since record-keeping began in 1936.

The patrol sees a link between the decrease in deaths and its stepped-up enforcement targeting impaired drivers.

But the pace of traffic deaths this year has been on the rise, and the patrol is urging drivers to be more cautious to help reverse that trend. There have been 487 fatalities confirmed so far this year, compared with 465 at this time last year.

Four people were killed during the Fourth of July holiday period this week.

Prospective Ohio drivers would see added training requirements and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would be allowed to accept credit and debit cards under a state transportation budget that easily cleared the Ohio House on Tuesday.